Convert users in workspace to regular google accounts

[jvriesde]

I want to end my workspace account and convert all current users to regular google accounts.

Is this possible?

If i cannot convert can i delete the workspace including the accounts and signup again with the same account names as a regular google user? Can this be done immediality or after a given time?

[KAM]

@jvriesde 

For your first question, the first issue is that there is no such thing as a regular google account.  If you mean gmail.com free accounts, then the answer is no, you cannot end your workpsace subscription and convert all the users to gmail.  However, a user could sign up for a gmail account at any time. 

You would have to  enable takeout and the users would have to use that to export their data from workspace if you are going to end that subscription.

Finally, no you cannot get the same usernames because workspace serves for your domain name.  With gmail, you only get the gmail.com domain (well and googlemail.com in some countries I believe) and you can only select usernames that aren't already taken.

Hope this helps, KAM

[dorth999]

> you cannot end your workpsace subscription and convert all the users to gmail. 

So for the last decade or more I've had a gmail user, me@mydomain.com (example), and I've used that login not just for email, but also for authentication into all Google services.  YouTube has all my "likes" and "comments".  My phone uses this login which tracks my location, visits, and reviews for Google Maps.  I've have 10's of thousands of photos and facial recognition trained over the course of many years, and I have even purchased additional storage.  I also have many existing photo shares and links which are all tied to that.  My Google home is all logged in, registered, and configured using this login.

So all of this goes away unless I pony up $72/year PER USER?!?  All of the above features exists for a free gmail user, but I have to have a .gmail.com suffix.  My entire digital persona is tied to this account and it's about to be abandoned unless I pay the ransom for my whole extended family - over $500 a year - for something that you give away "for free" to any gmail.com user.  There has to be a better answer.  😞

[tomcaudron]

There is a better option.  This is what I'm doing.

First, make sure your domain is under a registrar who offers free email accounts.  Most do and if yours doesn't then switch.  They suck.  I use gandi.net and they give me 5 emails per domain for free and each additional email is 40 cents a month.  Yep that's all it costs  I have 8 users in Workspace so I have to pay for 3 of them.  That's $1.20US per month or $14.20 per year.  For my example below I'll say Gandi, but you should see the same for your registrar.

STEP 1: I set up all 8 and follow Gandi's directions to change DNS so email now comes to Gandi's servers and not Google's.

STEP 2: I tell all 8 users how to go into the gmail app on their phones to add another email account (under settings).  Now, they can see their new emails coming from Gandi and their old ones still on Workspace in the same place.

STEP 3: I give them the URL for Gandi's webmail.  While the gmail app supports external email accounts, Googles web gmail does not.  If they want to check email in the browser, they would go to Gandi's webmail URL.  That's basically the only change the average user will notice to their actual daily life.

At some point in the next few months Google will rech out to ask that we either upgrade or covert to free gmail accounts.  Let your users convert.  They end up with a gmail address as well that they can ignore.  For extra credit, go into google account settings and remove the gmail service and when it asks what your default email should be, give it the email that used to be in Workspace.  Now even their log in is the same on both accounts and they don't have a hidden/shadow email account out their collecting spam or whatever.

Hope that helps.

[KAM]

@dorth999 it's been a good decade of a free ride while it lasted but yes, the legacy free edition is ending with another 6 months to transition.  I look at it this way, my kids spend more at starbucks than a month of google workspace so $6 a user a month seems not to bad in that perspective. -KAM

[KAM]

@dorth999  @jvriesde you might appreciate this article: https://9to5google.com/2022/01/26/g-suite-legacy-free-personal-non-business/ -KAM

[dobesv]

I think he's just asking about getting a Google Account for those email addresses (not gmail).  e.g. as described in these instructions under "use an existing email": 

https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/27441?hl=en

You can use Google Sign In with any email address by just signing up for a google account.

However, what's not so clear is if you used to have a Google Workspace account, will it let you sign up for such an account using the same email after you cancel Google Workspace?